maria's craft room

Homemade Marinara Sauce and Chocolate Cake!

Hi there:)  I've been cooking up a storm lately!  Yesterday I made marinara sauce from my garden tomatoes, I roasted chicken and asparagus, made more blueberry muffins for the husband to take to work, and I baked a chocolate cake...from scratch.  I was so proud of myself that I took pictures to share, though it's been so long since I crafted that I had to use my cell phone camera because my 'real' camera has a dead battery!  

And before I started cooking, I made some more homemade liquid laundry detergent...it starts with Fels Naptha soap.  Love that stuff.  Yesterday it felt like I used every bowl, spoon, cutting board and baking dish that I own!  And today we have leftovers and clean laundry.  Ahhhh.  Hand me my Kindle, would 'ya?

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time...M 

Blueberry Muffins

Hi there!  Hope you're doing well:)  I've been indulging my inner domestic diva lately and just had to share this recipe with you.  I found it online yesterday afternoon, made them last night, and cursed the bathroom scale this morning.  The recipe is titled 'To Die For Blueberry Muffins' and wow...they are.  The recipe can be found here, and I have a few tips for you in the event you give them a try:  1) use paper liners in your cupcake tin and 2) also grease the top edges of each tin so that your totally awesome muffin tops don't stick to the pan and 3) even though it doesn't seem like you could pack all of that crumb topping on each one, trust me that you can.  *snort*

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time...M

Loonie Stampers Challenge #149

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Hi there:)  TGIF...and happy Canada Day to my Loonies!  This week's LSC was Regan's choice and she went with gray, ocean tides and aqua mist.  I've been continuing my reduce and recycle attempts and so I took the sparkly aqua tissue paper my Verve stamps arrived in and glued it down to some white card stock.  You would not believe how awful I am with taking pictures (err...well, you might have some idea at this point) but I was determined to get those sparkles captured on camera!

And you would not believe the crafty DIY things I've been up to.  I've been re-finishing furniture, painting walls, sewing (and my crewel sampler kit from Alicia Paulson should be arriving shortly so I can start on that, too!), repurposing items around the house...having the summer off has been so much fun so far!!*  And guess what happened two days ago?  I picked the first tomato from my garden!  Yes!  

Let's go see what the girls did with the color selection:

Char   Dee  Regan   Wendy 

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Until next time...M

*The Loonie challenges are taking a summer vacation, too.  We will start up LSCs again at the beginning of September.  Until then, I'll be posting some of my crafty summer creations!!!